Harrison Ford Makes First Public Appearance Since Plane Crash at Comic-Con

Harrison Ford made his first public appearance since his March plane crash on Friday evening when he surprised fans by showing up at Comic-Con in San Diego.

More than six thousand fans filled the convention hall. They broke into screams and applause and gave Harrison Ford a standing ovation when he showed up–seemingly out of nowhere and joined the Friday evening panel.

Ford joked with the panel moderator when he asked about the condition of his foot.

Harrison Ford crashed his small plane on a golf course near L.A., sustaining serious injuries. Wife Calista Flockhart barely left his side during several weeks of hospitalization.

Ford joined his cast mates answering questions about the upcoming Star Wars sequel–due out in 2017. The actor is reprising his role as Han Solo.

He was asked how he felt about the reprisal.

“It should’ve felt ridiculous,” Ford said. “[The first movie] was 30 years ago, and I sort of grew up. And yet here I was doing something I did so long ago and I will tell you that it felt great.”

“I wasn’t so sure it would be but the company was the right company, the director was the right director. Larry [Kasdan] wrote us a wonderful story and I was proud and grateful to once again be involved. The original Star Wars that I was a part of really was the beginning of my working life and I was very, very grateful for the opportunity that I had in that film and for the success of that film. It was great to be back,” he added.

Harrison Ford said he didn’t expect this reprisal to necessarily be a great thing–but then he read the script.

“I was very grateful when I read the script because I read something that I thought was really remarkable, really well written and with some very intriguing developments,” he said.

Harrison Ford joined director J.J. Abrams, stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, as well as two more surprise guests–Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher–during Comic-Con on Friday. He didn’t take the stage until the last ten minutes of the presentation.

What a ten minutes that was, however, for Harrison Ford and Han Solo fans.